Greens (GTP"s) and spinal kinking

[solar 17]

A considerable number of GTP"s are developing spinal kinks above or just after their cloaca (backside) later on in life as a yearling or older with their friends and them blaming the breeder and the friends blaming the new owner of having a sneaky probe (sexing).....well its my belief and l do have a small amount of proof its the diet thats at fault and in a lot of cases some in the same clutch have kinks while their siblings are dead straight but l believe this is similar to humans where a brother or sister is in perfect health and the other never out of hospital
With Greens l believe like people again some are better water drinkers than others leading to better hydration. l have a couple of friends who are always commenting on the different drinking habits of their Greens, now like people some try harder whilst going to the toilet than others, l have watched one particular gtp of mine starting to slowly develope a kink in her spine as with a friend of mine so l took his snake and mine and changed them onto hopper rats 10-12 days old (fresh killed) and then a walk on the back lawn twice a week well over 4-5 months the kinks slowly started to reduce, photos were taken before and after showing the reduction conclusively (but oh so slow)
"lts my own view" that mature age/older mice and weaner rats have too much calcium and minerals for (SOME NOT ALL) gtp's as after watching numerous bowel movements and post evidence of such,the urates (the white section in poo)is bigger in mass and in a lot of cases dry white chalk although in real life its partial urine calcium and mineral deposits.

l had a couple of xrays done a year or so ago of a hopper rat 10-12 days old and a big weaner 21-26 days old and the calcium density is very significant.

This paragraph wont sit right with some people but they are FACTS. l have replaced (put back in) the prolapsed bowel on 38 GTP"s and every single one had dry substrate on the floor with their owners citing a variety of reasons and l am fine with that but l do believe if you have a dry substrate, poor drinker and you feed on the large side or one of those food items mentioned you have a "greater risk" of spinal kinking and or prolapse, now these are only my views but the numbers are starting to stack-up.

Just to finish off these are only my points of view and experiences, the only proof l have as such is the before and after of the spinal kinked pair l worked on previously mentioned

cheers solar 17 (baden)

 

[raycam01_au]

interesting read baden,
i would tend to agree, just seeing how friends keep their greens, in very high humidity and moisture contents, would like to look into this further, as GTP's are something i will certainly be keeping down the track

 

[Morgan_dragon]

Lol Baden, very carefully worded....good on you!

So are you saying in your experience you believe that GTP's are better off being fed small sized rats then fully grown mice? Or commenting that they are easily dehydrated and this can cause some of the problems people have been experiencing?

As both a keeper and breeder of quite a few GTP's and someone that really loves their animals would be hugely interested in the info you used and findings etc.

Will pm you

 

[Gonemad]

Hi baden
What do you feed your greens from start/yearling/mature?
When you say dry substance what are you meaning?
I have rocks in bottom of exo terra tank then have thick layer of coir-peat brick damp but I have read so many threads that too much humidity is a tribute to RI and dry isnt good either! My tank holds high humidity for about 4 hours and then goes down to 50% about 24 hours later when i mist again in your opinion and finding is there a better way? I should mention that I live in middle nsw so very dry, and yes I have read more complete chrondro and a lot of threads but it is one says this and another disagrees I know one way works with some but not others. Confused my yearling eats 2x 21 day old weaner mice every Friday night with out fail. She drinks from water bowl but I still mist her also.

 

[jinjajoe]

I think that this is not unlike suspected MBD in blueys and it is in my opinion dietary..... Not however the diet of the neonate more often mineral deficiencies of the mother.... But not necessarily displayed in all neonates just the ones that are mildly compromised before laying... Or during pregnancy...... Again just my thoughts.... Don't just look at the neonate... Moreover how was the condition of the parents ???